Surviving a 2-Month Revenue Freeze in Year 1

August 10, 2026

oday's guest spent his career studying healthcare from the outside — first in managed care operations, then as an investment banker doing healthcare M&A.

Then he pivoted, bought a business, and got a crash course in the one thing the spreadsheets never fully prepared him for: working capital (what else?).

Chibunna Chimezie is a Nigerian immigrant who grew up in Jersey City, where his parents worked blue collar jobs for 25 years raising the family.

After a Duke MBA and a stretch in healthcare investment banking, Chibunna went the self-funded SBA route — deliberately buying a smaller company so he could hold 89% of the equity rather than the roughly 25% a traditional search fund would have left him.

The business is Veterans Room, a behavioral health provider serving veterans.

Chibunna acquired it in August 2025 for $1.6 million.

‍In his first week of ownership, a congressional fight froze all telehealth claims. So for nearly two months, Chibunna kept delivering services with no revenue coming in at all — a live demonstration of why he'd been so deliberate about post-acquisition liquidity. Listen for that.

Also listen for how he came to think about working capital: not as money, but as a tool the business needs to run — like gas in a car you've just bought.

Here is Chibunna Chimezie, owner of Veterans Room.

Surviving a 2-Month Revenue Freeze in Year 1

Chibunna Chimezie's seller left $15k in the account. His post-acquisition liquidity is the only reason he made it.

Chibunna Chimezie, a healthcare investment banker and immigrant entrepreneur, acquired Veterans Room, a behavioral health provider serving veterans, through a self-funded ETA structure. He chose a smaller acquisition to retain greater ownership and governance, then spent his first year learning the frontline realities of operating the company. The deal brought an immediate working-capital shock when telehealth claims were suspended, reinforcing the importance of liquidity. Chibunna grew the provider network and veteran reach while learning to delegate, prioritize high-impact changes, and avoid becoming the operational bottleneck. His central philosophy is to create human and service value first, trusting financial value to follow.

Acquisition Snapshot

Industry

Technology

Acquisition Model

Search Fund

SBA Acquisition

Yes

Multiple Acquisitions

Yes

Country

United States

State/Province

Texas

Background of Entrepreneur

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Business Acquired

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Key Takeaways

If you just focus on creating value, it makes operating a lot easier, and it makes operating a lot more authentic.

Chibunna Chimezie

Chibunna approached ETA as an extension of his healthcare career, choosing a self-funded acquisition because it gave him greater equity ownership, governance control, and flexibility to build the company gradually. He deliberately accepted the trade-off of buying a smaller, messier business rather than surrendering significant ownership in a traditional search-fund structure.
Veterans Room is a behavioral-health provider focused exclusively on veterans, with providers selected partly for their military or veteran connections. Chibunna emphasized that his first-year operating lessons came from getting close to employees, providers, systems, and customers rather than managing solely from reports.
The acquisition price was $1.6 million, roughly 4x EBITDA, implying approximately $400,000 of EBITDA at purchase. Total project cost was roughly $1.8-$1.9 million, with about $400,000 of seller financing. New Majority Capital took 11%, while Chibunna retained 89%.
Working capital became the deal's biggest early lesson. The seller provided $15,000, while the SBA lender provided roughly $159,000; Chibunna also preserved personal liquidity. Within his first week, telehealth claims were suspended for nearly two months, producing no incoming revenue even though the company continued serving patients.
Despite the shock, the business expanded from roughly 700 veterans served at acquisition to more than 1,000 projected, while its provider base reached about 48, with Chibunna expecting more than 55 by year-end. His biggest operating lessons were to make only high-impact changes, avoid becoming the bottleneck, and focus relentlessly on what the company is solving for.

Introduction

Listen to the introduction from the host

Today's guest spent his career studying healthcare from the outside — first in managed care operations, then as an investment banker doing healthcare M&A.

Then he pivoted, bought a business, and got a crash course in the one thing the spreadsheets never fully prepared him for: working capital (what else?).

Chibunna Chimezie is a Nigerian immigrant who grew up in Jersey City, where his parents worked blue collar jobs for 25 years raising the family.

The business is Veterans Room, a behavioral health provider serving veterans.

Chibunna acquired it in August 2025 for $1.6 million.

Also listen for how he came to think about working capital: not as money, but as a tool the business needs to run — like gas in a car you've just bought.

Here is Chibunna Chimezie, owner of Veterans Room.

‍

About

Chibunna Chimezie

Chibunna Chimezie is a Nigerian immigrant, entrepreneur, healthcare operator, and father of two boys. His family immigrated to the United States in 1995 when he was one of six children, and they grew up in Jersey City. His father was an entrepreneur in Nigeria who sold textiles, eventually selling everything to finance the family's move to America. After immigrating, his father worked for more than 25 years cleaning NJ Transit trains, while his mother became a teacher.

Chibunna initially studied political science at Jacksonville State University, graduating in 2007 with ambitions of working in government and law. He interned for a congressman before earning a master's in public administration from Rutgers, where he focused on healthcare and organizational effectiveness. He later worked in New Jersey government under Governor Christie and then spent significant time in managed care at Aetna, Horizon, and Affinity Health Plan.

Seeking deeper exposure to healthcare finance and acquisitions, Chibunna earned an MBA from Duke's Fuqua School of Business, concentrating on healthcare and finance. He subsequently became an investment banker at MTS Health Partners, advising on life sciences and healthcare-services M&A. That experience taught him about value creation, governance, financial metrics, and scaling businesses, ultimately giving him the confidence to pursue entrepreneurship through acquisition.

You buy a job, but you buy a job for a certain amount of time.

Chibunna Chimezie

Show Notes

Chibunna Chimezie's seller left $15k in the account. His post-acquisition liquidity is the only reason he made it.

Topics in Chibunna’s interview:

His family’s immigration story from Nigeria
Interest in how American healthcare works
Learning to manage risk in business school
Acquiring a service provider for veterans
Government shutdown meant no revenue first 2 months
Post-acquisition liquidity for the win
Challenges veterans face back home
Answering the after-hours phone himself
His journey from banking to behavioral health
Investment from New Majority Capital

References and how to contact Chibunna:

Connect with Acquiring Minds:

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Edited by Anton Rohozov and produced by Pam Cameron

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Episode Transcript

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Surviving a 2-Month Revenue Freeze in Year 1

Surviving a 2-Month Revenue Freeze in Year 1

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Acquisition Snapshot

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Key Takeaways

Introduction

About

Chibunna Chimezie

Show Notes

Listen Instead of Watch

Episode Transcript

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